Going to Kings Cross
by Kallanit
Summary: I know JKR and numbers don't always get on well with each other, but one thing that left me ever-so-slightly flabbergasted was the Weasleys' departure, together with Harry and Hermione, from the Burrow to King's Cross after the Quidditch World Cup. One-shot. Complete.


**Disclaimer:** Not mine, don't own it—I wish! Unfortunately, Harry Potter belongs to JKR and not to me; I'm just playing in her sandbox.

.o.O.o.

After Arthur Weasley had rushed off to help Alastor Moody out of the trouble he had got himself into, his wife, Molly, sighed. "I'd better go into the village and try and order Muggle taxis for us to get to Kings Cross. How many do you think we'll need, dears?" she asked, looking from Harry to Hermione for their advice on this form of Muggle transport, something with which Molly was completely unfamiliar.

The two who had grown up in the Muggle world looked at each other uneasily. "Well, you see, the thing is," Harry stuttered and Hermione took over.

"A Muggle taxi will take about three-and-a-half to four hours to get to Kings Cross, maybe more if traffic is really bad. It's already after 7 o'clock, and you have to get into the village and back to order the taxis. Even assuming the taxi company has enough vehicles available immediately, which isn't guaranteed, it'll still take them time to get here. We'll be cutting it very fine—we could easily miss the train."

Harry was nodding in the background. After another uneasy look with Hermione, he grimaced and finally choked out what he had been trying to avoid voicing. "And, well, we'll probably need at least three taxis to cope with all of us _and_ all the luggage, maybe four, and it'll be really expensive to take even just one taxi for that long a journey, never mind three or four."

"Not forgetting that it costs extra to take luggage," Hermione added, "and that's regular Muggle suitcases, not large trunks. Muggles haven't used trunks in years, taxi drivers aren't used to such bulky luggage. They might not have enough room for all of the trunks."

"Muggle taxi drivers aren't used to transporting owls, either," Harry took over. "They might object even to taking a cat, never mind owls."

Molly's face was getting redder and redder. Harry was unsure if it was in embarrassment or anger, but he nonetheless found himself unconsciously taking a step back from the angry woman. Hermione, however, ploughed valiantly on. "If we could floo to the Leaky Cauldron, we could flag down taxis on Charing Cross Road, and it'll only take about ten to twenty minutes to get to Kings Cross from there by taxi. Alternatively, if you could shrink our trunks for us so that we can just slip them in our pockets, we could even walk there in under an hour from the Leaky Cauldron."

Harry nodded. "We could let Hedwig and Pig fly to Hogwarts, and shrink their cages and put them in our trunks, so we'd only need to worry about Crookshanks if we end up walking," he suggested. "Or if our trunks have been shrunk, we could use the Muggle underground. That won't take long either," he added, remembering his first visit to Diagon Alley with Hagrid. "Or we could even take the Knight Bus."

It was Hermione's turn to nod. "Any of those options would be much quicker and cheaper than taking three or four Muggle taxis from Devon to London," she agreed. "That would probably cost a good two or three hundred pounds at least, per taxi, and I don't have that much Muggle money with me to pay for the taxis."

"Do you know what the current exchange rate is, Hermione?" Harry asked.

"I didn't go to Gringotts myself this year to change money, so I don't know the exact rate, but it'll be somewhere around five Pounds to one Galleon. That means each taxi will be around forty to sixty Galleons."

The Weasley children had all been watching their friends tag-team their mother. Although they had all cringed when Harry and Hermione initially mentioned the expense of taking taxis from the Burrow to Kings Cross, they understood better once the two started talking numbers. That really was an awful lot of money.

"Why don't they have fireplaces on Platform 9¾ for flooing?" Ginny wondered.

Charlie shook his head at her. "Good question, but probably not the right time to ask it," he whispered.

At that point, Bill, who had been watching in amusement, stepped in. "Those are all good ideas, Mum. I don't even think the kids are ready to leave yet, are you?" Hermione nodded, but she was the only one. No one else had finished packing yet. "So there probably isn't enough time to go by Muggle taxi, and no one has sufficient Muggle money on hand to pay for the taxis. Flooing to the Leaky Cauldron or taking the Knight Bus would seem to be the best options. Do you know how much the Knight Bus costs, Harry?"

"When I used it last year, it cost me eleven Sickles from home to the Leaky Cauldron."

Molly had paled when she heard the amount of money involved in taking taxis, and she had to agree that there was a big difference between paying eleven Sickles each—less than fifteen galleons in total for herself, Bill, Charlie, the twins, Ron, Ginny, Harry and Hermione. Of course, they might be able to squash into three taxis rather than four if Bill and Charlie apparated to Kings Cross and met them on Platform 9¾, but Molly was still concerned about the attack that had taken place after the Quidditch World Cup and having her two eldest sons, who were both of age and able to do magic out of school, accompany them would be a relief to the worried mother.

"Which option do you think would be best?" Charlie asked with interest. "Flooing to the Leaky Cauldron and then either taking taxis, using the Muggle underground or walking, or else taking the Knight Bus?"

Harry thought for a minute. "We might not be first in line to be dropped off by the Knight Bus but we can ask before we get on if they can get us to Kings Cross in time for the train. If they can't, we can still floo to the Leaky Cauldron."

"I don't know how quickly we'll be able to flag down taxis on Charing Cross Road," Hermione added her tuppence worth. "If you can shrink our trunks, then the underground would probably a better option than taxis."

Molly looked apprehensive about that. She had never used the Muggle underground before and did not fancy shepherding all the children—including her highly mischievous twins—through this strange environment. Realising that was probably what was worrying his mother, Bill winked at Charlie. "The Knight Bus would be the easiest. We get on it here and we get off it at Kings Cross. No need to worry about how to get from the Leaky Cauldron to the station," he suggested persuasively.

Relieved, Molly nodded decisively. "Then that's what we'll do," she said firmly. "As we don't know how many people will need to be dropped off before us, I want us to leave here no later than nine o'clock, so all of you go and get ready. Bill, Charlie, go and supervise."

At nine o'clock, the Weasleys, Harry and Hermione were all walking towards the Burrow's wards at the edge of the property. Once past them, they would be able to summon the Knight Bus. Bill and Charlie had shrunk all the trunks—making sure everyone knew how to unshrink them after they got on the Hogwarts Express—and had also added Featherlight charms to them when they saw just how many books Hermione had crammed into her trunk. Harry and Ron had very sensibly told Pigwidgeon and Hedwig to fly to Hogwarts—much to Hedwig's visible relief, as she did not like being crammed into her cage on the train. Even Crookshanks' carrier had received a Featherlight charm, so Charlie, who was gallantly carrying the half-Kneazle, was not struggling with the weight of the hefty animal.

To their surprise and relief, they were by no means the only Hogwarts students on the Knight Bus heading for Kings Cross station.

"I didn't realise so many people used the Knight Bus," Ron commented, looking around wide-eyed.

"I'm not surprised," replied Hermione, narrowing her eyes as she took note of exactly who was there.

"What do you mean, Hermione?" asked Harry.

"Look who they are," she said. "Most of them are Muggleborns."

"So?" Ron asked in confusion.

"Ron," Hermione explained patiently. "People from magical families can floo to the Leaky Cauldron, like Harry and I suggested, but Muggles don't have floo connections. Or they could apparate if they're old enough, otherwise their parents could take them side-along—unless, of course, they have seven children to get to the platform. That might be a few too many to side-along apparate," she said with a grin and Charlie, who was listening with interest to the conversation winked at her in response.

"It's all right for the Muggleborns who live near London," she continued, "but many of those who live further away won't be able to get to Kings Cross for eleven o'clock, unless they either travel overnight or else travel to London on the thirty-first of August. That means they have to pay for overnight accommodation, and their parents have to take two days off work to accompany them—the thirty-first and the first—because they can't just send their minor children to book into a hotel on their own. Muggle travel is not only time-consuming, it's also expensive—and they have to repeat that whole palaver every time their children leave for or come home from Hogwarts. So, unless the Muggleborns have Pure-blood or Half-blood friends they can stay with overnight, then the easiest way for them to get to and from Kings Cross is to take the Knight Bus."

"What do you usually do?" Ginny asked with interest.

"We live in Potters Bar," Hermione replied. "I can get a train from Potters Bar directly to Kings Cross in under half an hour. For someone coming from further away, it's much harder."

"I didn't think of that," said Harry sheepishly. "The Dursleys also live near London. In that case, I suppose we'll probably have to stop off to pick up more people before we arrive at Kings Cross."

"I imagine so," agreed Hermione. "Hopefully, we'll arrive at the station in good time for the train, so we won't need to rush."

"Well, at least with our trunks having been shrunk for us, we won't have to worry about having to waste time looking for trolleys when we arrive, and we can go straight to Platform 9¾," Harry remarked philosophically, and Hermione hummed in agreement.

Fortunately, it was not long before they arrived at Kings Cross, and as they disembarked from the bus, they heard Stan, the conductor, wondering to the Ernie, the driver, how many more times they would need to stop off that morning at Kings Cross before the Hogwarts Express would depart.

Once she had returned home from seeing the teens onto the train and was quietly relaxing over a cup of tea, Molly reflected on their journey to the station and compared it to the usual rush and stress of getting to Kings Cross. She had to give her guests credit for their practicality, she felt. Their suggestions as to the various ways they could get to Kings Cross station, not to mention their ideas about how to make the journey easier—such as shrinking the trunks and getting the owls to fly to Hogwarts—all made sense, especially with a family as large and as prone to running late as hers. _I'll have to remember that for the future,_ she thought to herself with a smile.


End file.
